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Local Unemployment(March 10, 2003) --
It's far more important to understand the unemployment
rate in your local neighborhood than it is to have a grasp of the National
statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics offers easy to understand data at
the state and metropolitan
level. An astonishing 1/3 of all American Metropolitan areas have unemployment
rates at or below 4%. Almost half (45%) of states have unemployment rates at or
below 5%.

Rank

State

Rate

1

NORTH DAKOTA

3.0

1

SOUTH DAKOTA

3.0

3

NEBRASKA

3.4

4

DELAWARE

3.9

4

IOWA

3.9

4

MINNESOTA

3.9

4

VIRGINIA

3.9

8

MARYLAND

4.1

9

HAWAII

4.2

9

MONTANA

4.2

9

VERMONT

4.2

12

WYOMING

4.4

13

CONNECTICUT

4.6

13

KANSAS

4.6

15

MAINE

4.7

15

OKLAHOMA

4.7

15

TENNESSEE

4.7

18

GEORGIA

4.8

18

INDIANA

4.8

18

NEW HAMPSHIRE

4.8

21

MISSOURI

4.9

22

NEVADA

5.0

In other words, hiring is
not easy in much of the country. The current unemployment crisis is localized.

What matters is never the
overall surplus of labor (the thing unemployment rates attempt to measure).
Rather, staffing and hiring of a particular enterprise is directly related to
the availability of the specific kinds of workers in the specific geography. As
the population ages, the desire and ability to relocate are in decline. The best
way to understand whether or not you can solve a problem through a relocation
program is by focusing on geographies that have a surplus in the professions you
need.

For any sustained labor
force management program to really work, you have to treat local unemployment
data in the same way that we are discussing the national info. What really
matters is the labor surplus or shortage within a normal commute of your
offices.